


touch the sky with me

by tinyphrases



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 21:04:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7656709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinyphrases/pseuds/tinyphrases
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world is in chaos but we all get tangled up eventually. The dead are alive, and so is romance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	touch the sky with me

**Author's Note:**

> happy (belated) national girlfriend day!!!! i wrote this on an ipad while waiting for family to arrive in a burst of creativity. also i love these two so much goodbi.

“You know, I was fine relaxing for once,” Jess says with a yawn and a narrow of her eyes as Rey leaned into her room, hanging upside down from the window sill. There was a familiar beam in her face that made Jess’ stomach twist not all that unpleasantly and she chose, promptly, to ignore it. 

The look Rey gives her is stuck somewhere between bemused and chastising. “But you love an adventure, don’t you?” she insists, somersaulting into the room and flopping onto the empty bunk. Jess crosses her arms at her pointedly, trying to make a point. “Where is it that you want to take me so bad after I have spent all day patrolling the outer perimeter?”

“It's a surprise, Jess,” Rey sighs and rolls her eyes, though she's still beaming and bouncing with excitement. “I promise to deliver you back here within two hours? I take your patrol tomorrow? What is it that I have to do to make you join me in this?’”

Jess thinks it through. If Rey is offering to take a patrol off of her back – which is something that has not happened ever before – it means she has a day off. From her limited experience and the gossip spread by the rest of her patrol group, she knows that Professor Skywalker doesn't ever take a break from trying desperately to fix the problems in this godforsaken world. Meaning that Rey spends her day holed up inside the lab, wearing protective gear and trying to snort as little poisonous gas as possible. 

“Did you zone out or do you really not want to go with me?” Rey asks her, shaking her out of her thoughts rather effectively.

Jess sighs and pulls her boots toward her from under the bed, seeking for a sweater in her drawer. “Fine. But you are taking my patrol.”

What she doesn't expect is Rey jumping over to her and tackling her to the bed in a hug, before climbing back out of the window. “Meet me out front!” she says excitedly, before disappearing into the night, like she does so often. 

The girl has only been in town for some time, having been accompanied by General Organa’s twin brother on their trek through the country, working on a cure for the virus that was slowly but surely killing people. Not necessarily killing them. Just turning them into flesh eating monsters. Jess shudders at the memories from when she was just a kid, seeing families ripped apart and mangled, Poe taking her small hand in his larger one and tugging her with. They had found this place together, a sanctuary where people tried to regain a sense of self-sustained living, and had grown into decent, non-cannibalistic humans here. 

Patrols are her thing to contribute to the community. She is a pretty shitty cook, after all. 

Rey is leaning against her bike, picking at her nails quite casually, when Jess comes down in pyjamas, boots and a ratty sweatshirt with more than one hole in it. She looks at it skeptically. “Can that thing hold two people?”

“O ye of little faith,” the other girl sighs dramatically before chuckling, swinging her leg over the bike and patting the seat in front of her. “You trying to tell me I got fatter, Jessika?”

“There's not an ounce of meat on you, I would've known if you got fatter,” Jess replies, snickering as she takes a seat and holds the edges of the bike shakily. She’s facing the front now, where they're going that is, and she frowns. “Can I turn to face you?”

“Sure, you can rest your feet on the frame that way,” Rey nods easily and they both get relatively comfortable before Rey pushes off and cycles them in what is probably the right direction. She does so with surprisingly little wobbling, smiles down at Jess quite content lot, and Jess tries her best not to notice how the moon – that huge, bright motherfucker – is reflected in Rey’s dark eyes. 

“Will you please tell me where we’re going? The suspense is killing me.” Usually, there's no way those words would have been sincere, coming from Jess. But she does mean it for a change, and Rey is even more mischievous when she refuses to answer. She just smiles that smile of hers, the one Jess always notices when Rey stops by at her station for lunch. And Jess forces herself very much to not think about it when they're cycling. Half the balance depends on her. 

They halt nearby one of the still intact skyscrapers, leaning just a little and Jess looks up in wonder. It's huge, a towering visage from any place in the town and she has always wondered what the stars are like up there. Jumping off the seat, Rey leans her bike against the street lantern and hoists up the backpack she had tied to her backseat. It rattles and sloshes but Jess doesn't say a thing and follows Rey inside. “Wanna climb upstairs?” she jokes. 

Rey laughs wholeheartedly before shaking her head, the two of them passing the front desk to the elevators. “No way. We won't be even be done by the end of your patrol. Or my patrol, technically.” She frowns. “I should probably tell Luke I won't be working with him tomorrow. Eh.”

Jess is about to say that Rey really doesn't have to take that patrol if she's busy saving the world, when Rey tugs loose the control panel with a screwdriver and tugs on a wire. The elevator doors slide open easily. 

“Shit, Rey, you know your way into a girl’s heart,” Jess nearly swoons but contains herself taking Rey’s hand rather bravely. “Where’d you learn how to do that?”

“Trial and error. Also, I was a bit of a thug and I taught myself a quick escape.” The look on her face is sheepish and Jess just smiles. “I think it's awesome. I've been studying mechanics in my free time.”

“Then you're even cooler than I thought you were,” Rey says, all sincere and easy, before she leans over to remove the panel inside the elevator too. Reluctantly, Jess releases her hand, feeling something heavy drop in her stomach even though it's silly. Her hand feels empty. 

Within a matter of seconds, the doors slide closed and the elevator starts to move up. It's an odd feeling in a world where most things are the work of man and everything is manual. Jess barely even remembers elevators so the feeling shakes her up. Rey seems to notice the tremble in Jess and takes her spot back, two hands lacing between them effortlessly. 

“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a pilot,” Jess muses quietly, more to herself than anything. “Seems silly to be shaken by a simple moving elevator, now.”

Rey looks at her with what seems to be all warmth. “I know what you mean. It was all so easy when we were kids and now…”

Now there's nothing. The words are there, left unsaid but dangling between them as some form of agreement. When the world falls apart, childish hopes and dreams get pushed aside in lieu of survival. Jess is happy with her part in the city. She likes doing patrols and she likes the people she does them with. It seems like the only thing she could really as from life at this present moment. 

They ride the elevator in mostly silence, clutching one another by the hand as the numbers on the panel change, going up and up and up. Jess wants to ask how Rey found this, how she got it working because electricity from the hydroelectric plant doesn't reach the wiring in this uninhabited part of town. Instead, she just looks at her companion, Rey’s hair in a messy twist at the back of her head, but the rest of her is composed. She wears tees and cargo pants that never have a stain, since the lab has all the necessary protective gear. Jess feels a little silly admitting she didn't shower after today, but she was truly intending on getting a lot of sleep. 

She know she will be exhausted but it's worth it. It's worth this adventure and it's worth being dragged by this girl. 

When the elevator comes to a halt, Rey puts the panel back into its place and the two of them head to the staircase. By now, Jess has a good idea of what they're going to do and she feels giddy with excitement. She loves stargazing more than anything and she thinks that Rey knows that. Which is both a little embarrassing and exhilarating. 

They arrive at the top of the building where you can't hear a thing but the wind. It's chilly and Jess is thankful for the sweater she's wearing. Even so, she's thankful that she was taken here in the middle of the night. Sheer, the stars are the clearest and the chaos in the world the least disturbing. 

“You sure know how to pick date locations,” Jess comments, turning around to find Rey tugging a blanket out if her backpack. What she receives in return is a brilliant smile. No denying that this is a date. Somewhere deep down Jess knew that they were going to do this. This whole romance thing while standing right at the edge of the world. They could stand still or fall and let everything wrap around them. Taking a risk like that fills Jess with some kind of determination. 

They're hardly the first people to get tangled up. 

“I've never been in a date before, so thanks for stroking my ego,” Rey says playfully, so when Jess steps close and drops onto the blanket beside her, they end up pressed together right away. 

“Everyone's gonna be so jealous that you went out of your way to take me on a date instead of cornering me and kissing me,” Jess says with a wiggle of her eyebrows, resting her hand on Rey’s thigh. 

“That was plan B, if you care to know.”

Relationships are hard. They always have been, or so Jess has heard from older members of their community. But they're especially hard here and now.

“Plan A suits me just fine, but don't tell anyone I'm a hopeless romantic, or Poe won't let me live it down.” Jess glows from the inside and she just knows her face is a bright red colour.

Rey grins right before leaning in and bumping their noses together. “Your secret’s safe with me.” 

Jess already knows it is and kisses Rey, kisses her with excitement strumming in her veins, making her feel pleasantly heavy. Kiss drunk, if you will. Kissing, liking and loving someone – they're the things that remind her of what life would've been like if this all hadn't happened. If the world hadn't turned to shit. Then again, had the world not turned to shit… then they would not have been here. On top of an abandoned skyscraper is the last place Jess thought she would be kissing a cute girl who planned a midnight picnic for her. 

“Mm, should we stargaze?” Rey hums against Jess’ lips, the two of them cuddling up so that they can see the skies. 

“We’re technically stargayzing,” Jess says, and Rey’s laughter fills her to the brim. With what, she isn't sure, but she likes it too much to let it go.


End file.
